>Reading Activities.

June 27, 2008/

>The next topic for the reading extravaganza is Fun Reading Activities. And I don’t really do any of those. I would love to join a book group and should really make more of an effort to see if I could find one to go to. But it’s one of those things you put on the list and never quite get round too… I have a rather long one of those lists right now!

One of the best things about the summer however is the opportunity to sit outside with a book – there is something very different about reading outside to reading inside although it does have to be said that there are days when nothing but reading curled under a blanket (or my duvet usually) will do. I spent an entire afternoon like that, with the window open blowing a breeze over me a few weeks ago. It was lovely. The best thing about reading outside however is glancing up and watching the world go by – and maybe having a few words with those who pass. I have a back garden which is fenced but as a point of preference usually sit by my front door – and there is a path which goes right in front.

Several people who also volunteer at CAB also love to read and over the last several months we’ve had several quick discussions and mentions of good books. I’ve borrowed loads of different books from them (have books belonging to three different people from there atm) and lent a few out. It’s fun and it’s a good cheap way to get reading material. I really enjoying lending my books to others and hearing what they thought afterwards. It makes buying the books really worthwhile and they seem cheaper that way too. Our local library is some what lacking in books (it seems) and despite several long trips I’ve not found anything there that’s grabbed me for a long time. But being surrounded by former English teachers and others who like to read and who lend me books is like having my own personal library and it rocks.

Occasionally we will have a quiet morning and get into a bigger discussion on books but not as often as I would like. We’ve been borrowing Phillipa Gregory books lately (which I am not getting on well with) and this week during a quiet ten minutes were talking about how those books are historically accurate. It’s an area/period of history I’m particularly interested in (Tudors and Stewarts) so that was cool because I learned some stuff and I was intrigued to hear of the research that had gone into the writing of this fiction. It almost made me want to give those books another go having previously decided I wasn’t going to keep going with reading them.

My sister borrows a lot of books from me but we don’t often get into discussion of them beyond whether we liked them.